Father in heaven, we come in the name of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we know that right now around the world, people are pouring art to heart, their hearts to you in the Latin American countries and in the Asian areas and in Africa all over the world, Lord. And we join our voices with theirs and we cry out that you are the one true living God. We are here to worship you and praise you to learn more about you and then Lord to tell our friends and neighbors all that we are learning about you and that we believe about you. So thank you, Father, for our time together. Please bless us, help us Holy Spirit that we would learn and grow in our faith. We pray in Christ's name and all God's people said, Amen. The first week we started and we talked a little bit about Holy Scripture is God's special revelation. By the way, we added four or five new tables in here so it's a little more snug, sorry about that but it's a good problem. I'm sure we'll run some of you off eventually but not yet, good. Holy Scripture is special revelation as related to general revelation. Remember in Psalm 19, beginning in verse 1, listen up children. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. So general revelation is God's creation and I have been mentioned to you that the birds when they're singing, they're singing praises to God. And I do not want a bird to out sing praises to God. I want to out sing a bird. So we need to be singing God's praises all the time. The trees and the rivers proclaim His faithfulness and His power. And then we realize that special revelation comes in the form of God's inscripturated word. And this special revelation, God's word, reveals to us the true word, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so we have the privilege of worshiping Him this evening. This is a bit of a review. I want you to recognize the difference between illumination and speculation. Where we talked about illumination being the Holy Spirit revealing what God has already inscripturated about Himself. And so when you hear somebody talk about new revelation, we don't believe in new revelation. We believe that the revelation that God has given about Himself is illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Remember a couple of the marks of revelation? God's revelation is binding of our consciences. And so if somebody says, well, the Lord led me to do something. We say, well, of course, that's how the Spirit works. The Spirit works through God's word. It rests upon our hearts. And as John Calvin said, we acquiesce to God's word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it's almost like we put the spectacles of God's word on our faces. And by the power of the Spirit, we begin to see our world and see ourselves and see God differently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in illumination. That's different from speculation because speculation takes place when people begin to try to bind another person's conscience based on something that is not explicitly revealed in God's word. Remember, we said God's word not only prohibits, it also prescribes. And so we're careful as we preach God's word, that if we're going to seek to bind to somebody's conscience, we're going to seek to bind it with the clear, revealed word of God. Now, I summarized the first week by saying, really, what the Holy Scripture gives to us is it places God's something over our life. Does anybody remember the word I thought was a key word in this? What was it? Authority. Excellent. I have a book for you. This book is called The Treasure Principle. In honor of our missions conference, I'm going to give away four of these tonight because the treasure principle will, fortunately, or unfortunately, change your life. I don't know if you've ever read this. It really, honestly, it scares me for you because you cannot read this and then look at missions and your resources the same way, it really blew up my world. So I'm giving away four of these tonight and you get the first one. Can we pass it over there, Colin? Thank you. Thank you. Right. So the first word we really thought about is what God's Scripture does is it gives, it's authoritative in our lives, right? And so when we read God's word, it is God's speaking. And that's one of the reasons we stand during our worship services when we read God's word. Because God has revealed Himself through His Word and it is indeed God speaking. So I wanted to just review that a little bit. The second week, we talked about God and the Godhead. We talked about there's only one living and true God, infinite in being and perfection, a pure personal spirit, self-existent, incommunicable and communicable attributes. I mentioned last week that God was incomprehensible, but He was something else. You remember it, but we are able to describe God. Who said that first? Somebody in the back, here you go. I have a book for you. I'm going to toss it back there. You think I can get it under that chandelier and to you? I'm going to go right over your head so be careful, okay? It'll curve. Be ready. Okay. Okay. Now, what we realize in point two is that God is dependent on the creature for nada, but a nada, right, for nothing. God didn't create us out of need. He created us out of the overflowing glory, His desire to manifest His glory. And then thirdly, we were going to talk about the Trinity, but we didn't. And so I'm going to start us off with the Trinity tonight. So if you kind of follow along in your notes, we haven't gone very far. But I wanted to at least in a cursory way, talk a little bit about the Trinity. God is one as to essence and substance three in why I went too far. Well, you know what? Maybe this is just stuff I'm going to tell you about. Let me look at these handouts though. There's one living in today we are going. Yeah, that went too far. Jason, do you know how I back up? Thank you so much. This is good. But then I went from there to like, Shabang, like game over. Okay, we have good handouts, we'll make it. I want us to think through this idea of the Trinity. God is one as to essence and substance three in person. In order for us to really grip the idea of this, I wanted to give you a couple biblical examples there in Genesis 126. It speaks of man being created in our image. It's the plural. Some theologians would argue that that's the majestic plural, kind of like the queen speaks. And she's really speaking for herself, but she uses the plural. She says, we in Great Britain or in England, we believe that that is a possible application of that word. But we also believe that God is purposefully referring to Himself in the plural form. We could go on and talk a little bit about how God is one God in Deuteronomy 6.4 and says the Lord your God is one. And then I wanted to just give you a quick little picture here in Mark 1 verses 9 through 11, this picture of the Trinity. You have to recognize that the Trinity is revealed in a progressive way through Scripture. In your mind you might think of in Genesis 1, you do indeed have God speaking, creation into existence. We have the Spirit brooding and we know from John 1, 1, and following that Jesus is indeed involved in creation as well. So if you wanted to combine Genesis 1 and John 1, you have a wonderful combination of the Trinitarian work and creation. But here in Mark 1 verses 9 through 11, we have this idea that is communicated in those days. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when Jesus came up out of the water immediately, he saw the heavens being torn open. And the Spirit descending on him like a dove, a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved Son with you, I am well pleased. So we have a great example of the Trinity right there, don't we? We have God the Father speaking about His Son and to His Son. We have the Lord Jesus Christ Himself coming up out of the water and we also have the Holy Spirit descending. So we have these vivid pictures that our God is a triune God. And then Father's Son and Holy Spirit are three persons, not just three names for one person, but literally three persons. And I wanted to just draw your attention to John chapter 16, 4B and following John 16, 4B and following. He says, but I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you, I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now I'm going to Him who sent me, that's God the Father. None of you asked me where are you going. But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So you have these three distinct persons within the Trinity, the Father who sent Jesus who came and then the Holy Spirit who comes after Christ ascends in Acts chapter 1. And then I wanted to get you the sense that there's actually personal traits that God has. It says in Genesis 6, 5 and 6, that God is sorry that He made man. It says in John 4 that Jesus is tired. He's weary from His travel. And then we have the Spirit who is grieved in Isaiah 63 and then in other places throughout the New Testament. So we have this idea that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are indeed three persons in the One God, the Godhead. And then I just wanted to reiterate the point from last week, God the Son is eternal. John 17, 5. Remember when Jesus is speaking in His high priestly prayer and He utters these words that are so magnificent, He says, and now Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. So before the world existed, Christ, Jesus and the Father were together. And I wanted to encourage you with that. And then a little bit on the Trinity, one other idea that I wanted to communicate to you is called the economic Trinity or the economics of the Trinity. And it's basically the differing activities. It's kind of an old school application of that word economics. But the economy is the way God relates to the world. And we find that in the economy of the Trinity, we have the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit. I give you a little example. After creation, the Father's or at creation, the Father spoke, the Son carried out creation and the Spirit hovered or brooded. And that was what I quoted to you out of Genesis 1 and John 1. And then I wanted you to see, and this might be something you want to study on your own this week, Ephesians 1, 3, 3, 14. I want to encourage you to take a look at that passage and look at the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And you will have a little trouble with the pronoun. So go slowly to find the reference. But as you find the reference of the pronoun, you're going to find very clearly the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and our salvation. And I thought that would be an encouragement to you. So if I could sum up the doctrine of the Trinity, we would say, God is three persons. Each person is fully God, and there is one God. Now, I want to talk about a couple of errors that we've had in church history over the years. The first one is modalism. And you might think, what is modalism? modalism believes that there are not three distinct persons, but one person who appears in different modes at different times. So in other words, not three distinct persons, but one person who appears in different modes at different times. In other words, they believe that God only manifests himself as Jesus, and the Father and the Spirit no longer exists. He just manifests himself in these different ways. And unfortunately, that has become quite popular, and a number of people are holding that particular view. There's a huge church in Dallas, the minister has a big television, ministry, and he occasionally starts by preaching God's Word, but then wanders off to saying whatever he wants to say, and he's a modalist. He believes that God manifests himself in different persons of the Trinity. He they don't simultaneously exist. And so I wanted to bring that to your attention. And then next, Aryanism, I don't know how many of you are a good friend of Aryas. He lived in the fourth century. If you're not a channeler like Shirley McLean, you've probably never met Aryas. But Aryas was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The Council of Nicaea met and discussed Aryas' view. And Aryas' view in the English, I'll give it to you. He believed there was a time when Jesus was not. And he took that phrase begotten, begotten of the Father, and he took it too far. And he went on to say, well, if Jesus was begotten of the Father, that means there must have been a time when he did not exist. If he did not exist for eternity, then he's not gone. And so Aryas, I believe you may find this striking for me to say this, but I believe Aryas had very good intentions. He was just, he was dead wrong. And he was condemned at the Council of Nicaea for that view. And so this idea that Jesus was created and he didn't exist with the Father for all time and with the Holy Spirit for all time, goes all the way back into Aryanism. And then I wanted to talk a little bit about analogies. Just briefly, analogies in general are insufficient. The idea of water, ice, and steam. The idea that, and I'm gonna let you tell me what the error is. Some people would say, well, God's like water in that. He can be water in a liquid form. He could be water in ice form. Or he could be water in a steam form. You might think, what's wrong with that? Yeah, he, it's motoristic, right? He, you can't have one particular volume of water be all three of those at the same time, the way God is, okay? So you just need to kind of stay away from analogies because some of you might remember, it's very difficult for the finite to fully comprehend the infinite, that's right. That's worth a book right there. I saw you over there. Clay might like this. I'm a little afraid to fire it at you. Could we pass that one? Your son Clay in that youth video was hilarious, by the way. He, we were laughing so hard. In fact, we, we found that song the other day. And we were all singing it in our car and Clay's memory on that mission trip. So he's a hoot. I'm sure you could tell us even more stories. So I wanted to give you this sense of the Trinity. Now, let's move on to today's lesson. We're gonna talk about the study of God's decrees or how God relates to his creation, how God governs his world. So as we think about this, let me, let me tell you a story. I came back from Africa two years ago with my wife Laura. And we came back from Africa and we were not doing very well. Emotionally, physically, spiritually, we were, we were hurting. And at one moment, I just kind of quietly prayed to the Lord and I said, Lord, how can you let your people in Africa starve to death? How, how can you do that? And I didn't hear an audible voice, but as I was pursuing the Lord, something hit me. It was as if God said, yeah, Tim, how can you let my people in Africa starve to death? This is what was going on. I was trying to dump all my responsibility on the Lord. I said, get with it. You could feed all the people of Africa. You've provided enough grain and sustenance to take care of all the people on the planet. And then once again, it was as if the Lord said, yes. Yes, I have. Why don't you selfish, corrupt people take care of what I've given you? Now, I'm telling you that story for a couple of reasons. One is because we're about to go into our mission's conference and it is the desire of my heart, the heart of our other pastors, our session, our diaconate that every member of our church be actively involved in home and world missions. In particular, we're going to focus on world missions here coming up and I'm asking that the Lord would work in your heart in such a way that you would not only send people but that you would go yourself. And so as you think about the economy of the Trinity, I want you to think about the economy of your life. How are you spending your life? How do you want to be remembered when your life is over? And I want to encourage you that the Lord is going to hold us accountable for how we spend our life. That's not a threat, it's not really a warning, it's just the truth. And I want to encourage us to think about how we're going to spend our lives. Now, I'm going to look at these notes just to make sure I'm on the right track here. It's always nice to do that occasionally.
Let's take a peek at this week number three. It's a quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter three, God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordained, whatsoever comes to pass. Yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures. You hear that? Nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures. Nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away but rather established. I told you that story about Africa because I believe it strikes at the heart of God's decrees. God has ordained everything that takes place but he has not negated second causes. You might think what's the second cause? A second cause is I have the complete relational ability to throw that paper up in the air, right? You might say, well, God ordained you would do that and I said I know and he also empowered me with the will to do it. And so when you think about a place like Africa or Latin America, you need to recognize simultaneously God's sovereign rule and our responsibility. I gave away a couple books by Packer. It's called, God's sovereign evangelism and the sovereignty of God. If you haven't read that, I encourage you to read it and it'll blow you up but it teaches what the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty and man's free will. And so that second cause was that I was empowered to act according to the way I wanted to act. Even though God has already foreordained, they don't negate one another. So there's three prominent views of God when it comes to his sovereign rule. Sovereign meaning that he is in control of all things. R.C. Sproul says this and I remember the very first time I heard him say that but he says that if there's one maverick molecule in the universe then God is not sovereign. So we know that God is sovereign and I kinda wanna unpack this for us just a little bit to get us thinking about it. There's three popular views when we think about God. There's the deistic view and that is that God created the world and then essentially abandoned it. It's the idea that God, let's use this watch as an illustration that God created this watch and he wound it up and then he left it and it's basically on its own. So God was indeed the first cause but then God didn't sustain his creation. The second view I want you to think about is pantheism. It's the idea that creation does not have a real distinct existence in itself but is really a part of God. And so we know that God created out of nothing and he made his creation and his creation is governed and provided for sustained by him but his creation isn't him. God isn't in the tree. When you cut down a tree for firewood, this winter God's not crying. You're not hurting him, right? The Christian view of providence is God as the creator and sustainer that God is actively related to and involved in creation at each moment yet creation is distinct from him. It's very important that we understand this and that we don't get duped into some of the current thinking that people have about God. So you can see what happens. The deists didn't go far enough with the fact that God creates and sustains and the pantheists went too far didn't they? They believe that God became the creation. He became the creature. And of course our Christian view speaks of God's providence as creator and sustainer. So God's providence is expressed in three ways and we're gonna spend the book of our time talking about these three ways that God's providence is expressed. In preservation, in concurrence and in government and I'll unpack these as we go. Preservation is the idea that God preserves all things by his power and we find here in Hebrews, let me read this for us. He brews one three and then I'm gonna roll a few more Bible verses actually that you can write down if you'd like. It says he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. So it says God upholds the universe. What does that mean? He upholds the universe. It means that he carries it like in Luke when Jesus heals a man and he says, take up your bed and walk, carry it. That man picks it up and he carries it and that's the Hebrew word that is used there and I mean the Greek word that's used there in the book of Hebrews to the mark that God is carrying along his creation, he is preserving it. And as you think about that, you might think of Colossians 117. Let me look that up for us Colossians 117. I just wanna hit you with a few verses so that you can go back for your personal study and do a little meditation on this if you would so desire. Now it says and he is before all things and in him all things hold together. So he's holding these things. He's carrying these things. He is keeping these things until the day of judgment. Now I wanna say something right now that I don't know if it's gonna catch you off guard or not but what I said was, I said you might wanna go back and study this on your own this week. What, how could I say that if I didn't believe that you were a person who had free will? How would I say that if I didn't believe that you could actually choose? Some of you will take these notes, you'll go to our website at church, you'll listen to my talk over and over and over and over again. You're diligent, you're hungry, you're studying. Maybe you're thinking I'm gonna teach this to my children or my grandchildren or maybe the guys and girls at work or whatever your motivation might be or you might think I just really wanna know God better. I need to understand these basics. I want you to recognize that God has not negated second causes and in other words God hasn't violated your will. You are free to do that, you're free to stand up right now and walk out of here or you're free to continue to pursue God with all of your energy. And that's why when we speak of walking in the spirit, we always speak of a cooperative effort. And I want you to, I really want you to get that. I have been begging God for this church for a while now but I want you to recognize something. We must take steps of obedience, all right? We could pray, oh God, I pray my grass gets cut.
We'll go ahead and pray that for a year, maybe. Maybe your neighbor will break down and cut it, I don't know, there goes the neighborhood. But I want you to recognize that this idea of providence means that God is preserving His people. That's not me, is it? Okay, God is preserving His people. And another example of this is second Peter 3.7 that it's kept until the day of judgment. That concept of being kept is the concept of being preserved. Now let's slide over to concurrence. Concurrence meaning that God cooperates with the created things in every action. Let's see if you have that definition or if I need to say, oh good you haven't. Concurrence meaning that God cooperates with created things in every action. Directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. And so we recognize that we do have this cooperative relationship with the Lord. And God in His sovereign providential rule has ordained that which is going to take place, but He has not violated our will. That is difficult for us to grasp. But I want you to know that that is indeed what the Bible teaches. And let's take a look at that together. First of all, in Ephesians 1-11, Ephesians 1-11 says, in Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. That's a fairly conclusive statement, isn't it? Having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. So we recognize that God brings things about according to His will. And then I've listed a few things here for us in terms of inanimate creation, Psalm 148. Let me read that for us, Psalm 148.8. It says, fire, inhale, snow and mist, stormy wind, all fulfilling His word. And so we know that the Lord has power over inanimate creation. I tend to get a kick out of the people who do the weather on the television. Sometimes you watch the anchor person interact with the weather person and he'll look over and the anchor will say, well, Shirley, what kind of day do you have for us tomorrow? And Shirley will either say, well, I've got a great day for you, Bill. Or she'll say, well, mother nature is smiling us tomorrow, right? And so they've actually given nature its own identity apart from the providential power of God. We think that storms simply come out of the generated forces of nature. And we forget to recognize that a God controls the world. Remember in Jonah, when Jonah was told to go to the Northeast, instead he went to the West Southwest. And as he got out on the Mediterranean, it says that God threw a storm at him. The literal Hebrew makes you think of Roger Clemens leaning back on the mound and firing a storm at that ship that Jonah was on. I'll preach that Lord willing in April or May. So you'll hear it again. But I want you to recognize that God has control over the inanimate creation. He also has control over the animals, Matthew 6.26. Some of you already know this verse, but let me read it for us. Matthew 6.26 says, look at the birds of the air. They neither so nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more valuable or of more value than they? And then I want you to think about seemingly random or chance events. And look at Proverbs 16, 33. Proverbs 16, 33. You know, as Christians, we don't believe in chance. I guess you could try to call yourself a Christian and believe in chance. I don't think if you believe in the God of the Bible, you would believe in chance. It says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. The reason I'm belaboring this idea about chance a little bit is I want you to recognize that throughout the history of people, humanity. There's always been this sense of, is God really in control? How much is God in control of? And so R.C. Sproul in his book that I had mentioned to you earlier, I think I'd put it in our notes if I'm not mistaken. He was teaching a seminary class and he said, let's take a poll. How many of you believe that God from all eternity freely and unchangeably ordains every single thing that comes to pass? And so about three fours of the students raise their hands. He said, let me ask you one more question. How many of you would describe yourselves as an atheist? And nobody raised their hand. And he said, I don't really understand this because those of you who would not affirm the declaration are obviously unwilling to identify yourselves as atheists. But if you won't affirm this statement, that is what you really are. And then he went under explain. First of all, we have to understand that what is affirmed, that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass from all eternity, is not a uniquely reformed theology. It's a doctrine that is expressed in classical Jewish orthodoxy, in Muslim orthodoxy, and in Christian orthodoxy with respect to the nature of God. All this does is affirm theism itself. It affirms that God is sovereign. If in some sense God does not ordain everything that comes to pass, then in the final analysis, he is not really sovereign. And if he is not sovereign, he cannot be God. If you self-consciously reject the sovereignty of God, you are rejecting the very nature of God and are not entitled to the term theist. In other words, he's saying you're entitled to the term atheist. And so this concept of sovereignty of God is not just something that upon which Calvinists hang their hats, although we do, but it's something that most theists believe that God is a sovereign God and that God has ordained all that is to come to pass. And what we have to do is make biblical sense out of how do we understand that? So this idea of concurrence would lead us to believe that these seemingly random or chance events are actually underneath the work of God. And then I want to spend a little time talking about events that are fully caused by God and fully caused by creatures as well. Now, I think a great example of this is the idea of Acts 2, 22, and 23. Acts 2, 22, and 23. I think when I read this to you, you'll see how this idea of concurrence will come forward into your mind. Acts 2, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, that's God's sovereignty. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. And so you have this combination found in the one verse of God's sovereign, four ordaining rule, and the free, volitional work of men and women. And I want you to understand that that is indeed what the Scripture teaches us about the concurrent work of God. We have to recognize that God is sovereign and he's also set up the secondary causes, meaning that man has free will. Man is free to act according to his nature and according to his greatest desire. I also want us to recognize that all aspects of our life are working concurrently with God, Psalm 139, 16, it says, your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book we're written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. So the Lord even before the psalmist was born, saw his whole life laid out before him. If you will, look at Galatians 115. Trying to give you a variety of Old Testament New Testament here so that you see these doctrinal truths are coming from the unity of God's word, the whole council. Paul says, but when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, so Paul believed in the sovereign working of the Lord that even before he was born, the Lord had set this out for Paul. Now, I want to handle a bit of a sticky issue here because I just think it's helpful for us to develop our thinking when we're in the Christian community as opposed to when we wander in and somebody hits us with a right cross. I know when I was a youth pastor in the spring of the year before our seniors went off to college, I would always do a course on the things that I knew the professors would use to try to undermine our kids' faith. You know, you get somebody in a quarter row jacket and a beard and you know, the kids think they must be some intellectual magnet. You know, how did he get this smart? He's actually questioning the Christian faith as if, you know, this guy was some intellectual giant. And so I found that when I gave the kids the ammunition, anticipating what those professors were going to say, that our kids were not, number one, they were not surprised. Number two, their faith was not shaken. And number three, they gave that professor a ride for his life, right? And so I wanted today to talk just a little bit about this problem of evil. If God through his providential care does indeed cause events, then what is the relationship between God and evil? Well, first of all, I want to say is God doesn't directly do evil, but evil comes through the willing actions of humans, these moral creatures. And I thought I would give us an example of this with God and Pharaoh. I think it's a great example because we have this hardening of Pharaoh's heart and we'll find within the scripture the idea that Pharaoh's heart is hardened and some of the scriptures say Pharaoh hardened it and some say the Lord did. So let's look at it. Exodus 4, 21, says, and the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh, all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. And then I could kind of work our way through a variety of verses. Look it over. Look over at 9, 12 just to show you that this is repeated throughout. It says, but the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. And he did not listen to them as the Lord had spoken to Moses. And then we also know that Pharaoh hardened his own heart in Exodus 8, 15. Let me read this for you. It says, but when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite he hardened his heart and would not listen to them as the Lord had said. And then I have a couple other examples of that if you would like to look it up. I think the argument that Pharaoh hardened his own heart is hard to maintain because you have to recognize that before Pharaoh ever hardened his heart, God promised that his heart would be hardened. And then we have some retrospective look on this, if you will. If you'll go ahead and go to Romans 9, 17 with me, want you to see how the Apostle Paul uses this passage. He's not trying to hide it. He's not trying to sweep it under the carpet. Paul, in fact, uses it in trying to explain who God is and how God works. In Romans 9, 17. Actually, I'm going to back up a little bit and start in 14. Romans 9, 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means? For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whom ever he wills and he hardens whom ever he wills. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to the molder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump, one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God is iring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And we could go on and unpack these ideas about the Lord. I want you to recognize that one of the things that you have to recognize and you have to agree is that we see both the divine and the human working simultaneously. And I would submit to you that the evil that was in Pharaoh's heart, God didn't restrain that evil and he allowed that evil to continue and continue to develop. We even say it sometimes that God not only allows the evil to develop in a person's heart, he also pushes that evil to its furthest extent. We know in Romans 1 where it says when they exchange the truth of God for a lie, they were given over to the property and it says God darkened their mind. That's why it's very serious business when we see somebody beginning in a sin pattern. Because I think in our minds, we think, oh, I've only looked at pornography once a week for a month. I'm not going to worry about it, but a person who knows their own heart would say, oh my, this could be a trend developing in me. I could begin to get more involved in this surrealistic pornography world where I have this control over men and women. I can lust after them. It doesn't cost me anything. I don't have the emotional maturity to interact with someone or the opposite sex in a way that allows me to be married or to have a healthy marriage. I'm going to escape through this and you see where I'm going, right? These patterns of sinfulness develop to the point that a person's mind and heart can be dark and then move toward depravity. And so when we see patterns of sin in ourselves, we need to take that very seriously. We need to stop in our K-group last week. I asked a very bold question toward the end of that lesson and I simply said, is there, do you have known, unconfessed sin in your life? Why would I say that? Well, because how do you know whether you're on the road to darkening end depravity? Stop, repent. Today is the day. If you've tried to conquer a sin by yourself and you have not been successful, you need to get help. I'm telling you right now, you're like, oh, I'm embarrassed or I knock it off. This is above embarrassment. This is above social humiliation. It's your walk with the Lord and eternity. Stop and seek help. Tell your spouse, tell a trusted friend, all right? You need to recognize the reality of our lives and stop lying to ourselves. So God in a concurrent way works in his people's lives and he has ordained what is to come to pass. What is interesting about this is we don't know what it is going to be and so we preach the gospel to ourselves every day and we preach the gospel to our friends and to our neighbors and hope that God would save them. I gave this example of David and his sin. Remember David's sin with Bashiba and how he was brought into account for that. It's a wonderful day when a person is caught in their sin. So don't beat people up for getting caught in their sin. Be a gracious, honest, receptor of people when they come to repentance. Treat them the way you would like to be treated and so I want you to have this understanding of this concurrent work between God and his people and that the evil that is in the world has come from the free volition of man and his desire and there are times when God moves that into an exponential expression of evil in people's lives and so repent for today is the day of repentance. And then the third thing I want to speak of the first two aspects of providence are preservation and concurrence. The last is government. What does that mean? It means that God has a purpose and all that he does in the world and he directs all things in order that they accomplish his purposes. I've given you a few verses there but one is Romans 8, 28. I think many of you know this passage. It says God works all things together for good for those who are called according to his purpose, those who love the Lord. I want you to recognize that God is capable of turning our mistakes and our pain and sinful lifestyle into a beautiful portrait of God's grace and mercy. And so for some of us this is a great verse. I know that when I was walking through my divorce I did not believe that the Lord could in any way bring anything good out of my divorce. I hated divorce before I was divorced, I hated divorce while I was being divorced and I hate divorce even more now. But God in his mercy and kindness somehow, some way worked things together for the good. I remember standing in front of my Sunday school class we had about 400 people in our Sunday school class at one point, a cute little intimate community. And I remember standing before them and I said I really don't believe God is going to bring good out of this divorce. I was just being honest with them. I said I read Romans 8, 28 and I said right now I don't believe it. I said pray for your pastor because I don't believe it. And you know what's nice is to be in a community of people where you could tell the truth. Right? Isn't that good? Then not have to act or not try to want it up or not try to put on the professional pastor. Oh, the Lord's Lord. Yeah, the Lord says this. And you know what? I am really struggling to believe it. And I almost got in a fist fight with a friend of mine. We went to Cuba. And while we're in Cuba doing some humanitarian work, we came back and our flight was through Cancun. We had an overnight stage. So we went for a walk on the beach and Scott Bumpus and I are walking along and he goes, Tinsley, I've been praying for you and God has something great for your life around the corner. Like shut up. I mean, believe me alone. You know, we're on the beach. Just shut up. Bumpus. He's like, I'm not kidding. I've been praying so hard for you. And I know the Lord is going to redeem you and he's going to restore your ministry. He's going to give you a wonderful wife. Just just get ready. I'm like, oh, I said, I've had it with you. Bumpus, I am a happy single guy. I'm walking with the Lord. I love him. I'm doing missions around the world. I'm effective. I love my life. I don't have to be married to be fulfilled. Just leave me alone. He's like, he's laughing at me. I'm getting mad, mad, matter. And then I met a woman named Laura and Bumpus just kept laughing at me and he's probably laughing right now down in Florida as he tries to sell his undervalued property. Because now I can tell him, you know, once God works, all things together for the good of his people who love him or are called according to his purpose. I really had times when I didn't believe it. I just didn't believe it, but I do now because of God's continued mercy and kindness in my life. So I just wanted to be honest with you a little bit about that and how God works. I do want to make one differentiation here in the last few moments. The difference between God's revealed will and his secret will. Some people have said to me, they know I'm a Calvinist, and I believe in God's ordaining work as sovereignty, total gravity of man, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance, or preserving of the saints. And they'll throw this verse at me and I go, man, it's a very powerful verse. I do believe that in terms of God's will that he does indeed hear out of 1 Timothy 2.4. All people all men to be saved. But I also know that not all men are saved. Okay, so we have a bit of a conundrum. We have a scripture that says that God would, that everyone would be saved. And yet I know God's all powerful and yet I know there are people who are not saved. So where do we go with that? Right? We've got a little bit of a logistical problem or we have to redefine who God is and some people do that. Some people say, well, God must not be all powerful then. Or God must not mean what he says. The way the Orthodox theologians have dealt with this is this idea that God has a will that is revealed and expressed, but there's also his decreative or his secretive will. The idea that God in his love for all the world would, that everyone would be saved. But they're not because they were not in the work of Christ on the cross. And they are not believing in the work of Christ on the cross. I gave two examples of Judas and Hitler. We don't know either of these men that they had come to a profession of faith in Christ as the Son of God and as Savior and Lord. And so you have to wrestle with that. I've wrestled with it and I've come up with my answer, but you have to wrestle with it too. And I hope you do. And we can wrestle with it together. Hey, you know what I want to say here tonight? Myself, Joel, and Jerry, and Chris, and maybe Robert, our new youth pastor. I have a chance to teach some of this with us. You need to recognize that we are honest theologians, honest men who've reached our conclusions. And you have to reach your conclusions too. And we're not going to beat you up for holding a different conclusion than we have. We're not going to go, oh, second class citizen, yeah, Armenian. Right. We're not going to do that. I believe everybody comes to Christ as an Armenian. I just believe we do. We're like, well, Jesus died for me. I believe it. Oh, Jesus, come into my heart and save me. And then as we continue to go, we go, well, maybe there is a little bit more to it than that. And you're going to land where you're going to land. And if you will hold on to the all-sufficient work of Christ for his people, we're not going to have arguments and fights. We're going to worship the Lord. I get a little bit of a kick out of people who fight over eschatology. And the reason I get a kick out of it is because typically, people who fight over eschatology miss the purpose of eschatology. We're going to heaven. So let's stand at the door and fight. Hey, what do you think? No, just go through the door. Celebrate eternity with Christ. That's what it's about. It's kind of like stuck on the doorway. Just go on. We'll talk about that toward the end of the year. I actually am teaching that one because I want to tee that up and have some good dialogue with you about that. So here's our summary. God ordains everything that comes to pass. God is not the author of sin. Man's free will is not violated. Liberty of second causes, not only not taken away, they were established by God. Please get that. God's decrees regarding salvation are final and fixed. I believe in God's sovereign rule in my life, but I also look both ways before I cross the street.
I know we're Presbyterians, but an amen belongs there folks. I mean, right? We believe in God's sovereign rule, and yet he has not denied in fact, he has established second causes. A second cause would be tinsley steps out in front of a bus. Right? So yes, I believe in God's sovereignty and I simultaneously wholeheartedly believe in our responsibility. And then just lastly, and I have to say this, as I try to tell as many people as I can about the Lord's salvation, about the work of the Lord, only he knows and we pursue people. Hey, Joel gave me this book, he showed me this book today. I felt like I'd really loaded you up with resources the last couple weeks, so I haven't added to it. But here's a great book on digging deeper in terms of how to study the Bible for yourself and go deeper. Tons of you are on fire for the Lord. I don't know if you've noticed it, but one of the things you're asking me is, how can I get more out? I love listening to the sermons. I love the K-groups. And this is a great book that Joel recommends. A good buddy of mine recommends it too. So there's two good friends who recommend it. But here at the bottom of the page, Dig Deeper by Nigel, is it Bainin or Binyin? Okay. Thank you Andrew Sox. So Dig Deeper, I'm going to encourage you to do that. Okay, our time is up. Let me say a prayer for us and off we'll go. Father, we're about to walk out of this place and you know where we're going. You've ordained our lives and yet at the same time you've ordained our will that we have the freedom. We can stop and get a coke on the way home. We could go for ice cream. We could go visit somebody in the hospital or a shut-in. We could stay here and fellowship all night. Lord, you have established this beauty that we are able to walk our lives and pursue what we desire the most. Thank you, Father. I don't believe any of us will ever understand this tension until we're in heaven. And so Lord, may we hold on to your revealed word and will you please hold on to us and take us to heaven? We pray in Jesus' name and all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. Good night.